Blackburn Rovers have unlocked Todd Cantwell's new strength

The Rovers number 10 has netted in successive games since taking the armband from Lewis Travis. The added responsibility has seemingly emboldened a player who thrives in an environment where he is the main man.

With Cantwell, it's pretty easy to tell whether he's going to have 'one of those games'. The trick and flicks are out early on. There's a level of intensity that went missing too many times last year.

It's only the start but in pre-season and his first two appearances of this season, he looks right at it.

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"We know Todd. I think he wanted to take responsibility, he wanted to show up," Ismael said.

"After a long discussion with him, I got the feeling that he's the right person to get the job. Last week the performance was great, today he kept that level of performance and scored another goal.

"So it's exactly what we expected from him. He played 90 minutes, I think the first time in this long period he played through. It means that the captaincy gave him some new strength and it can only be a win-win situation then.

"The main quality he has is he socialises very well, so he's able to speak with the Academy boys, with the board, with the teammates, with the staff, with a nice tone. He's able to speak to everyone, even when the emotions are high. 

"I think for the group we have, he's a new type of captain and I think this is exactly what the group need, the type of captain now.

"We had to change something with the captaincy, and I think he just showed that it was the right call to do for this group."

Ismael has spoken consistently about the different in Rovers' performances during 'calm' and 'chaos' periods. Everything was running smoothly in Spain during pre-season and the displays were encouraging.

Then, several weeks of uncertainty with Callum Brittain and then Lewis Travis leaving. It bled onto the pitch and into performances.

A key message from Ismael's pre-Hull presser was that calm had been restored post-Birmingham. What followed? A 3-0 Rovers win.

"I think that we learned from last week, the feeling when you lose a game and you are disappointed. How we lost last week was painful because it was our fault. We've got everything under control," he explained.

"The good thing in football, you have the chance one week after to change the course. There are two things in life that are very important, family and healthy. The rest is just football.

"Football means you lose game, but the week after you have the chance to win a game and it's something different. So that's why we know that we stay calm, we stay focused. 

"We deal with the adversity we had the last couple of weeks and now we are moving forward and the win will help us to start the season.

"Now we need to recover and before the international break we have another difficult away home game against Norwich. So we need the same performance, the same focus and we go from there.

"It's the Championship. If you lose games, stay calm, if you win games, stay calm. These things change quickly. It will give us another confidence for the week. As I say, you see the difference this week to lead to that game.

"We had more calm, less hectic and then we were more focused on the pitch and straight away we saw the performance on the pitch. 

"That's why I'm looking forward to another week when we can work calmly with the players again. The win will give the confidence and just to prepare for the next game."